Our Homeschooling Journey: Kindergarten Math

Diving Deeper into Math

We're done with counting, addition and subtraction. Now, we go forth and multiply. Of course, we also have to divide and conquer. Or rather conquer division. January 2022 hasn't been the sweetest to us, what with it starting us off with flu and all. I sensed that my little kiddo is already getting stressed with Math. To think that we ended last year in high spirits when it comes to our Math skills.

I guess that's just how it is in homeschooling. The moment you start feeling like you're getting the hang of it, something just throws you off balance out of nowhere. Just like in life. Just when you thought you got your shit together, all of a sudden, things just get out of hand. You got to be ready for anything. What you thought worked before might not be useful in the future.

I prided myself for taking the time in crafting and creating fun and interactive learning materials for my little one. It has helped us move forward with our lessons. Even kept us above water when it comes to our deadlines. We were doing great on all subjects. It's not so bad now, but I got to be honest, that road we took for our skip counting and multiplication lessons was one rocky and bumpy mess.

What works today may not work tomorrow

As usual, I made lesson plans and learning material for our study time. I have to make sure I have everything prepped each day. That meant late nights planning, conceptualizing, testing just to make sure everything will work out fine. My learning aides worked very well before. But for some reason, we couldn't connect with each other for our Math time.

I couldn't blame her. She's very much used to the easy stuff like counting, adding, subtracting. Then all of a sudden, she has to skip count, multiply and divide. The learning materials did not work because I forgot one important factor in making those materials. Her learning style. Her learning behavior. Her.

Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best. - Bob Talbert

And as of right now, at her age, the most important thing for her is to have fun. I stopped for a moment, in fact for a few days, evaluating myself on how we're doing with our homeschooling journey so far. Then it hit me. I'm starting to head to the path of learning by memorization.

Don't get me wrong, it is important to improve one's memory. Remembering facts and lessons help us move on to the next topics. Relying heavily though on memorization alone for a kindergarten student is far from effective. In fact, it is counterproductive. A 5-year old is simply hardwired for playtime and fun.

So the question remains. How do you teach Kindergarten Math?

Know Your Audience

First of all, it is imperative that you know your learner. My kid loves storytelling as much as she likes reading, playing, and watching her favorite shows on Netflix. Our textbook has a lot of multiplication exercises. There is nowhere in the book that spells out fun. The moment I decided to ditch the book, that's when we started showing progress in our multiplication and division lessons.

Instead, we used our whiteboard, colorful whiteboard markers, a couple of colorful sticks, some marbles, jackstones, paper clips, and several stories. It's not necessarily me as the teacher who made the stories. She also came up with her stories of sharing and caring. See what we did there? We had the chance to learn about GMRC while studying Math. And better yet, she's the one telling the stories so I have assurance that she did understood the lessons and it shows through her storylines.

Explore other methods of learning

My daughter also loves singing. Lessons stick more to her mind when she's singing about it be it made up songs she composed herself or songs she heard from Youtube. She's learning how to play the piano right now so we're also incorporating that in our sing song lessons. Skip counting was made easy because of these.

I know I made an interactive number line learning material before that we used for our subtraction and addition. It was also supposed to be used for skip counting but children are so fickle minded. One day they love their toy, the next day, it's good as trash. I'm still not throwing that away because I know she'll be looking for it soon. (Sometimes she does so as soon as I threw something away.) So it stays in the study area for future use.

Additionally, don't rely solely on modules and/or textbooks provided by schools. Search for kindergarten books and learning materials online. You may also want to search through bookstores after bookstores to look for books that speak to your child's inner reader. Reading books may not be children's most preferred learning method, it is our job as parents/educators to teach them the love of reading books. But then again, forcing them to hold one is not the way. Look for books that are colorful, interactive, entertaining, and really simplified to your child's level. Support groups are a big help for this where you could find recommendations.

Low-Key Transform Playtime to Study Time

You know how fun it is when we trick our kids into drinking medicine disguised in their favorite juice box? I haven't used that trick as of yet but I have used the same energy in incorporating our fractions lessons in her playtime.

When I saw the word Fractions in our curriculum, I was actually stumped by the idea of teaching that topic to a 5-year old kindergartener. Maybe I just don't remember it, but I don't think I ever did learn fractions in Kindergarten. And that's the thing. I don't think she will ever remember every detail of the lessons. That's when I realized I don't need to give her an in-depth lesson about fractions.

So for our Fractions lesson, I played tea party with her. I knew if I took the lessons too seriously, we will just both be stressed out and end up with no learning at the end of the day. What's worse is that it may damage our relationship if we both get upset during our study time. I'd like for her to love learning as much as she loves reading.

Our tea party was very interesting and fun. Our scripts varied from "I'd like to have 1/6 of the cake please." to "Here, is your 1/4 of the pizza." Yes, this tea party has pizza too. And some chili peppers, guava, starfruit and all her toys that could be cut in half. When you're trying to keep things interesting and educational, you got to be creative in looking for toys that you can use. I crocheted the pizza toy that we've been using for our Following instructions lesson. The toy cake was bought from a kariton (wagon store).

There's no easy way to teach Math to children. As a matter of fact, the only way they will learn is when they are loving learning. My kid is amazed at how she learned something new without her having to go through the quizzes in her book. Young minds are not supposed to be quizzed, they're supposed to have fun and just enjoy being kids. I know a lot of people who somehow got the fear of Math or learned to hate Math. Hate and learning aren't exactly a good combination.

Study time with our young ones should also be fun, exciting, and productive. It should also help strengthen our relationship with them as they grow old. Instead of feeling stressed out, both the parent and the kid should feel happy after the session. All it needs is a little bit of creativity, perseverance and a lot of patience in looking for more ways of making learning fun. Since we're homeschooling, we have the luxury of doing just that.